“What’s It Gonna Be?” by Shura, April 27, 2022 + Nothing's Real track-by-track
Today is the third entry from Shura's Nothing's Real album. In an interview at Austin City Limits in 2019, Shura said that her mother said that her mother said of her first album "It gets better the more you listen to it," which Shura and the interviewer lightheartedly took as a criticism of the singer-songwriter's 2016 album. I agree with Shura's mother, but not as a criticism of the album. It was great the summers of 2016 and 2017 when I first enjoyed Nothing's Real. But the album was more than just a song fleeting song of the summer. To me, it gets better every time I listen to it.
IF YOU LET ME DOWN, LET ME DOWN SLOW. Today, I'll provide a track-by-track reaction to each song on Shura's Nothing's Real much like what I've done with Acceptance's Phantoms and Turn Off the Stars. My reaction isn't meant to be extensive, and I will add to it as I choose more songs to be the song of the day. I'll provide the Spotify version here:1. (i). The album starts with an instrumental. It's ambient sounds. Guitarist Joel Pott adds a few notes. There are noises of sirens and faint samples from recordings from Shura's childhood. It's a little creepy.
2. "Nothing's Real." The title track kicks off the album building off the noise from the first track. The song is layered with overdubs including a squealing young child, presumably young Shura. The song ends with a horn or sax synth sound. The song deals with Shura's hospitalization when she dealt with a depressive incident. The song hints a nihilism, but the driving dance beat doesn't leave us in that nihilism.
3. "What's It's Gonna Be" Today's song further lightens the mood of the album. Shura talks about how the song was partially inspired by Janet Jackson and Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer."
4. "Touch" was Shura's first single. It blew up on the Internet and displayed a spirt of D.I.Y. pop music. For more about this song, read my post from earlier this year.
5. "Kidz 'N' Stuff" Deals with a break up. Shura had invested a lot of mental energy into the relationship. The song is a bit slow compared to the previous bangers. But don't skip it. The instrumental build up at the end bridges nicely into the next track.
6. "Indecision" Some publications have called Shura the Madonna for Millennials. But there's a lot of reasons why this doesn't work: Shura isn't really popular; she doesn't care much for fashion; she's gay; and her voice sounds timid on these tracks. But maybe that's exactly what a Madonna in '10s would sound like. "Indecision" is a banger.
Music video:
7. "What Happened to Us." So, I was in Syracuse Airport in 2016 waiting in Johnny Rockets waiting for my delayed flight due to severe weather, and I heard this song. It was the only time I heard that I heard Shura in the states. I was also a little shocked to hear the lyrics, which I was pretty sure that read like "I was never ready / Fuck your love," but that's not the words. "What Happened to Us" is an eloquent break up song about idealizing the good and forgetting the toxic.
8. (ii) breaks up the album with a dialogue between young Shura and her father, talking about her brother.
9. "Tongue Tied" starts off with a grooving guitar and the bridge starts bringing the meaning home with an '80s key/synth. Shura opens the song with "Your language got me tongue tied." Shura is fluent in English and Russian. In the Genius annotation, Shura talks about how she was dating someone who spoke Dutch at the time, and though she spoke a little Dutch, she couldn't express herself completely in that language.
10. "Make It Up" is another slow burn track on the album. It's the natural follow up to "Kidz 'N' Stuff." To read more, check out my post from last year.
11. "2Shy" is the third single from the album. It's not the most thrilling song on the album, but it does confirm the introverted pop star style that is lacking in music today. Check out the music video:
12. "White Lights." To me, "White Lights" is the song that sets the album apart from any other pop album. What pop star releases a ten-minute track with a jam session on at the end? Shura riffs on the theme at the end of the song, ending the vocals at around 5 minutes into the track, then the guitar jams for over two minutes before the track goes silent. We hear more of Shura's experimental recording and then the hidden track "311215" begins. It's a slow track about being worried about death.
13. "The Space Tapes." The final track on the album is more sampling and experimentation. You can hear bits of the rest of the album, but unless you are in the car and are just totally into this album, you might want to spare the additional 9 minutes. Then again, I'll probably listen to this album again and think this song is brilliant the more I listen to it.
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